Day 4/51
Tuesday 23 Jul 13
Got up really early in
Dubai at 5.30am to catch a taxi at 6am to head to Dubai airport & fly to
Amsterdam at 8.25am. We ate a nice French breakfast at Dubai airport & meet
some other ozzies sitting next to us at the café that were also heading to
Amsterdam on our fight. Flight was nice we flew another A380 Emirates & we
both thought the in flight entertainment on Emirates was better than Qantas.
However with no trusty pilot friend to upgrade us this flight we unfortunately
had to stay in economy class. Must admit I missed the extra leg room &
space from Premium Economy but at least this flight wasn’t as long as from
Australia to Dubai.
After arriving at
Amsterdam airport we headed to airport info desk that let us know we could
catch train to Amsterdam central station & then catch tram 4 that would
drop us at Stadhouderskade stop, directly opposite our Nothing Hill Hotel on
the corner of Westeinde & Witsenkade opposite the Netherlands Bank, which
was very handy. So our first glimpses of Amsterdam were from inside their
un-air-conditioned train. In contrast to Dubai that have air-conditioning everywhere
due to the ridiculous heat & humidity there. Amsterdam doesn’t get very hot
for very often & alternatively gets very cold in winter. Therefore none of
there public transport has air-conditioning making everyone very hot &
sweaty. The trams are great though. They are like Melbourne & run on the
road but are far better organised & go to pretty much everywhere in the
city & you are never to far from a tram stop. One of the first things you
notice about Amsterdam are the beautiful canals surrounded by they old tall
brick buildings. The next thing you notice is that people ride their bikes
everywhere because the city is so flat & they have bike lanes on every road
& get right of way of cars to accommodate these bicyclist.
We arrived at our
amazing Notting Hill Hotel, Amsterdam & the first thing you notice is the
gorgeous old suitcases decorating the wall behind the reception desk.
As soon as we check in
reception gave us a very informative map of Amsterdam , showed us where the
hotel was & all the major tourist attractions marked on it, which was very
handy.
The rest of the hotel
also lives up to this gorgeous decor. I loved our room & the fact that it
had a nespresso pod coffee machine in our room made it even better.
So we only had one
night in Amsterdam and had to make the most of it so after a quick shower &
a rough plan we headed out to see Amsterdam at 4pm. We headed straight to
Heineken brewery which was really close to the hotel & that closed at 7pm
with last entry 2hrs before. That’s one great thing about Europe everything
seems to stay open late (except grocery shops).
Because we arrived in
the afternoon there was no queue to get in and we headed straight in after been
given out Heineken wrist band with 2x free drinks & 1x free gift on it for
visiting, that we hand over to reimburse for each. We were both surprised how
big it was & you definitely get your moneys worth.
It included the
history of Heineken & who founded the company, how they marketed Heineken
& made the E’s smilie, how it was passes down through the generations &
is still a family company, how they make the beer with main ingredients being
water, barley, hops & Heineken “A” yeast.
Clydesdale horses in
the stables that used to transport the Heineken beer.
Feature walls of
Heineken beer bottles.
Interactive games to
play & videos of all the Heineken ads.
Heineken movie made
with miniature wax models still at the museum.
How to properly taste
beer & that the head is present to stop the bubbles from escaping but is
the most bitter part of the beer so when drinking beer make sure you don’t sip
to just get mainly bubbles. It also has a bar where you get 2 beers each as
part of your entry fee. Daniel therefore was lucky enough to get 4 schooners of
beer due to the facts I don’t drink beer & on top of both our 2 midis beer
tasting drinks earlier was nicely relaxed after leaving the Heineken tour at
6.30pm. But wait that’s not all. Included in your entry fee you get a free gift
which can only be collected at their retail store (nice bit of marketing), your
options are either to walk there for catch the free Heineken canal cruise to
the other store that would leave at 7pm. So I’m sure you can guess we were like hello free canal
cruise!
So we had 30mins to
waste before the cruise so decided to check out the Albert Cuyp-markets that
were nearly by. On the way we found this funny sign & took a hug.
And found these great
little streets where the locals were hanging out at cafes/pubs, with all their
bikes lined up outside everywhere.
We found the street
that the markets where usually on but unfortunately they were packing up so we
headed back to the Heineken brewery to catch the canal cruise opposite the brewery.
The boat was of course the Heineken green.
After the Heineken
canal boat, nearly as long as the canal was wide, did a full 360 degree turn on
the canal, nearly taking out other canal boats cruising the canal in the
process we then headed towards the Binnenamstel canal. Cruising on the canal we
definitely felt Dutch. I’m in love with the laid back atmosphere in Amsterdam.
The locals are all hanging out on their boats cruising the canals on the
Tuesday night drinking & sunbaking throughout the night. The other thing I
love is that it doesn’t get dark over here in summer until after 10pm &
they locals are all still out on the town.
There were lots of
house boats that Daniel decided he wanted to own & live in! No surprises
there.
Daniel was impressed
with speeding signs that were attached to bridges on the canal, the speed limit
was 6 knots & if you were speeding they would flash your speed in red &
have a sad face. If you were doing the speed limit they would flash the speed
you were doing in green & have a happy face. Once we got onto
Binnenamstel canal which was a lot bigger & wider, we passed the really nice
Amstel Hotel, went under Sarphatistraat bridge & Magere bridge that opens
for boats and stopped opposite the Hermitage Amsterdam building.
So I think my favourite
part of sight see in Amsterdam was definitely the canal cruise. We got off the
canal cruise at Amstelstr. We then headed to Heineken retain store & picked
up our free gift which was one Heineken bottle opener each.
That night we walked
back to the centre of town & ate dinner in the Rembrandt-Plein that had a
central courtyard & was encircled by restaurants, sitting amongst locals
& tourists with everyone facing the central courtyard people watching.
After dinner we went to an Amsterdam "Coffeeshop" for some R&R, where I got my first experience of having to pay to use the toilet (not impressed with this). We then headed
to see the famous red light district of Amsterdam, with all the prostitutes in
red light windows with doors opening onto the street. Unfortunately would love
to have show a photo but you are not allowed to take photos of them & one
male even got yelled at by one prostitute for taking a photo. If the girls were
open for business the light was on & the girl was modelling hardly anything,
most wearing bras & underwear but some were wearing nothing more than can
be described as a mankini like Borat wears. If the girls were already “busy”
the red light was still on but the windows curtains were drawn closed & you
have to wait until she was finished & came back to the window. Some of the girls were
ok looking but others on the back street were terrible looking (but maybe have
a lot of experience).
